Too Many Matches

I'm finding it difficult to keep up with all the matches at the moment, so here is a brief review of the A team/Cov League encounters from the past week.

Last Monday we edged out Solihull A by 2.5-1.5. Joshua won, as usual, from what everybody else in the team thought was a very dubious position on Board 3. But in surprisingly quick time he overwhelmed Nigel Towers with Black, taking his A team league score to 7.5/8, so clearly he knows more than the rest of us! Mike agreed a draw soon after against Neil Clarke on Board 4, when Black had plenty of counterplay, but not much time. I lost a very annoying game to Tony Sadler with White on Board 2, standing slightly better for some time before drifting to equality and then making a very ill-judged queen sac for a rook and knight. The queen then ran amok and won the game single handedly! But we were saved by Andy, who played a powerful and determined game with the Black pieces against Ammar Karim on Board 1. Confronted by a far from usual White set up he pressed hard from the very beginning and eventually broke through on the seventh rank to deliver a very unusual mate - pawn to c2 being the decisive final move. This was clearly a very well played game.

The evening was further enlivened by Roy, who set a new record for incompetence by going to two venues in one night (including the Abbey Club), only to find that neither of them were where he was supposed to be (away v Coventry). He thus became our third LDCL default of the season, which is not something of which we can be proud. And as if I hadn't seen enough KCC members for one evening, I then bumped into the Club Chairman (and the altogether more delightful Mrs Club Chairman) on my walk home.

The next night, two of the A team were in action again at Rugby, in a Coventry League Division 1 match, where we once again won by the minimum margin. But truth be told we were never in any danger of losing, and as I managed to bounce back from the previous evening's reverse by beating Ganesh Vishwanath on Board 1 (trapping his queen to win the game), the fact that we couldn't convert advantages on any of the other boards was not a problem. The match was notable for Jude's debut appearance in Division 1 (surely the youngest ever in the CDCL?), and for most of it I thought he was going to beat Simon Turner on Board 4 (with Black) - but in the end it was only a draw. Not bad for a 9-y-o!! Mike drew again on Board 2, having been slightly pressed by Jonathan Cox after an early exchange of queens. White had the d file and more space, but Mike defended carefully and swapped into a double knight ending where he easily held the balance. Ben's game was far more exciting, and he really went for it against Patrick Reid, but Black defended well and actively, and with us only needing a draw to win the match, I was quite happy to see the final peace agreement.

Another two matches in the coming week for me. I'm not sure I can stand the pace at my age
 - but as long as we keep winning, I'll try to keep going!